The California Radioactive
Materials Management Forum*respectfully requests a "no" vote when Senate Bill 1444 is heard
in committee on June 18.

* The California
Radioactive Materials Management Forum is an association of organizations
that use radioactive materials in the four states of the Southwestern
Compact (Host State California, Arizona, North Dakota, and South
Dakota). Members include universities; utilities; industries including
biotech and pharmaceutical; medical centers; and professional
societies in medicine, radiation safety, and engineering.

Existing Standards
Protect Public Health and Safety

As noted in the attached
editorial from the San Jose Mercury News, itís a mistake to treat
any amount of radioactivity as dangerous: "Detectable radioactivity
does not mean dangerous radioactivity."

Cal Rad opposes SB
1444 because existing standards, established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission and the California Department of Health Services, for clean
up and license termination of sites where facilities that use radioactive
materials have been decommissioned, are more than adequate to protect
the public health and safety. These regulations require clean up to
very low residual levels, well below the level of any reasonable concern.
Provisions in SB 1444 for clean-up to even lower, insignificant levels
or background and the requirement for a permanent deed restriction or
covenant provide no public benefit and would be economically counterproductive.
Such requirements would only discourage beneficial uses of radioactive
materials in California by industries, universities, medical centers,
and other research institutions.

SB 1444 would unwisely
constrain the discretion of expert regulators with respect to safe levels
of decontamination required and safe disposal of waste materials generated
in the cleanup process.

Views of the United
States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Attached is a letter
dated April 9, 2002 from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissionís Office
of State and Tribal Programs to the Radiologic Health Branch in the
California Department of Health Services. The letter offers comments
on SB 1444 and other bills, pending before the Legislature, on radioactive
waste. The NRC# notes that a criterion more stringent than that of the
NRC

"Öis
allowed under the relevant compatibility Criterion (Criterion C),
but only so long as it does not preclude a practice in the National
Interest. We are concerned that the draft legislation would have
such a preclusive effect."

The NRC letter goes
on to say that the proposed California criteria will be difficult to
implement and that

"If
the State were to require potential licensees to maintain a decommissioning
fund to support license termination under the criteria in this draft
legislation, the cost burden might preclude other work involving
radioactivity regulated under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as
amended. As an additional consequence, the proposed requirements
may have the effect of creating perpetual State licenses for existing
facilities because of the cost of decommissioning to background
levels. The proposed criteria could also create a disincentive for
an existing licensee to spend significant funds for site decommissioning
if the end result was a site that still could not achieve the State
license termination criteria."

Conclusions: Cal
Rad Urges a "No" Vote on SB 1444

SB 1444 could impact
all radioactive materials licensees including government facilities
and universities thereby creating significant costs for State government.

Provisions of SB 1444
reflect a view that very low, residual levels of radiation following
a clean up entail a substantial risk to public health and safety. We
respectfully disagree. Please consider the following finding of the
United States General Accounting Office* :

"Conclusive
evidence of radiation effects is lacking below a total of about
5,000 to 10,000 millirem, according to the scientific literature
we examined and a consensus of scientists whose views we obtained."

SB 1444 will discourage
beneficial uses of radioactive materials by institutions and corporations
in California.

For these reasons,
we respectfully request a "no" vote on SB 1444 on June 18.

Sincerely,
Alan Pasternak

Attachment: Editorial,
San Jose Mercury News, May 30, 2002 Letter dated April 9. 2002
from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissionís Office of State and Tribal
Programs to the California Radiologic Health Branch.